Big Brothers V - End of Phase 1

The completion of the Brigade commander and his staff officer brings the first part of my 2015 Heavy Cavalry Division challenge to a close.

2e Regiment de Cuirassiers

To recap, 23 Cuirassiers were created in 1635 from an Ordnance company of Cardinal Richelieu and were initially called Cardinal-Duc. However, in 1643 they were renamed the Royale-Cavalerie and in 1791 the 2e Regiment de Cavalerie. Their name changed once again in 1802 when the Regiment became the 2e Regiment de Cavalerie-Cuirassiers and, finally, in 1803 they take on 2e Regiment de Cuirassiers.

In 1812, 2e Cuirassiers were led by Colonel Pierre Rolland, but came under the command of Général de Brigade Bruno. Despite being wounded in October 1813 Rolland went on to command his own brigade a month later, having been made Commander of the Legion d'Honneur earlier the same year. A former Hussar officer, Adrien François Bruno also survived the invasion of Russia. He took command of the 1st Heavy Cavalry Division after Borodino, but his career was curtailed when he was captured in 1813 after the battle of Dresden.

Here, Bruno is represented by Alan Perry's 28mm L'Heritier model.

As you can see, I've made a start on their commander and the 3e Cuirassiers and 1e Chevau Légers are all prepped for painting. The box to their rear contains two batteries of horse artillery, 9e Cuirassiers, and associated commanders.

Finally a plea to anyone going to Salute who might be willing to part with the event special sculpted by the Twins...

Big Brothers IV

With the final squadron of the 2e Cuirassiers I decided to try out some different tones on the horses.

The officer is mounted on a black. Many blacks are a very dark brown. So I've used that as the highlight with an even lighter brown around the mouth and sheath.

As always, the trumpeter is on a grey. However, rather than the near white of the others, this one is on a dappled grey. All grey horses are born chestnut, bay, or black and fade over time to grey. They can retain their dappling for many years, sometimes not completely greying out until their teens.

As we have not yet accomplished my dream of living next to the stables, overlooking the horses as they graze. I use photos of t'internet as a handy reference. In the case of the trumpeter's mount, I used the one below, but allowed the light grey/white dapples to accentuate the highlights somewhat more than one the real horse. If enough people are interested and like my results, I'd do a specific post on how I paint horses sometime.

You'll note that I've also gone for darker tones than my norm on two of the troopers, based on this example of a faded black:

Once I've completed the brigade command stand, I'll post up a picture of the full regiment.